


Taken Away

by SadisticCupcake



Category: Original Work
Genre: Auction, Beating, Gen, Past Abuse, Slavery, historical fiction - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 19:05:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadisticCupcake/pseuds/SadisticCupcake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another man came up and took my other arm and began to walk away with me. I looked up at him in confusion and all he did was smirk at me. His teeth were all crooked and his breath smelled like something had crawled into his mouth and died. “Say goodbye, boy.”</p>
<p>“Kagiso…!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taken Away

**Author's Note:**

> My historical fiction essay for my language arts class.

I could hear the loud buzzing of multiple male swamp cicadas attempting to gain a mate as I picked ears of corn from the field I was working in along with the few other children who would moan and groan quietly every once in a while from their efforts. The air was thick and muggy as well as hot, so I paused in my own labor and raised a hand with a dirty, orange, worn with holes cloth grasped within it to wipe my face that was dripping with salty sweat. My dark brown eyes  were locked onto the end of the field that was only a few feet from where I stood and I could hear it calling out to me; wanting me to lay on the luscious green grass and feel it tickle my skin while I relaxed.

_"Kagiso,"_ I overheard a girl about one to three years older than I whisper to me in my native tongue, bringing me back from my trance before my left eye began to sting from a bead of sweat entering it.

Letting out a quiet yelp, I pressed my cloth to my irritated eye as an attempt to make the pain stop. _"What is it, Zuri?"_ I asked, tiredness, sorrow and annoyance tracing my tone of voice. _"If it is something about not working and a punishment, I do not want to hear it."_

Her grey colored eyes narrowed at me from the corn stalks she was peering through. _"Then perform, boy,"_ she ordered and moved her long, black hair before going back to picking corn herself. _"I do not want to witness another one of your beatings."_

I understood she was only looking out for me and my well being. After all, she was my friend...and the only one at that. The other children on the farm I lived on didn't particularly like me since I... Well, I wasn't one who was all for the rules... As a matter of fact, I absolutely hated them. I thought they were idiotic; rules.

_"The last one I do not even understand why I recieved,"_ I retorted as I shoved my overused rag into my pants pocket and turned my back towards Zuri to pick more corn to place in my large basket that resided to the left of me. _"He came up to me, smacked me, then pushed me down before he cracked his whip against my bare back."_

_"Because you were attempting an "escape,""_ she informed me. _"I know you were not, but that was what everyone else thought... Even your parents."_

I shook my head and said with slight anger in my voice, _"This is why others will not even give me the light of day. They believe me a troublemaker, and will not have anything to do with me."_

Zuri laughed and I stiffened up some, waiting for her to talk. When I realized she wasn't going to, I frowned again and picked up my basket, resting it on my hip as if it were a toddler, once I was done gathering corn. _"What is so funny?"_ I asked.

When I turned around to face her through the corn stalks, I caught her smiling at me before she allowed a giggle to escape from her. _"Nothing,"_ she replied. _"Nothing at all...but just remember that I will be around no matter how many miles there will be, if any at all."_

~~~

_"Father...?"_ I called to him softly as I husked the white corn I gathered from earlier. I heard him make a grunt in response, indicating to me to continue. _"What happened to Uncle Tse? Am I old enough to know now?"_ I questioned.

Tse was my father's twin brother. He used to live with us on the large farm we poured our labor into until he went to go to work one day, some years ago, and never came back. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air, but my father and mother knew what happened and I wanted to know too... They would never tell me about him though. He wasn't even brought up in conversation anymore.

Licking his lips, father shook his head. _"No, little one,"_ he told me sternly. _"We will wait until you are older."_

I puffed out my cheeks and fumbled with my husking. _"I am already ten years old!"_ I spat. _"Why can I not know?"_

He looked up from the black and white dairy cow he was milking with aggravation dancing within his light blue irises. _"Kagiso, that is enough!"_ he barked.

_"Atsu..."_ My mother's voice was soft and gentle yet it sliced the air smoothly like a blade to butter. _"Please, do not be so rash to our boy,"_ she seemed to beg my father while she worked. Her small, filthy, worked hands were occupied as she skinned multiple potatoes with ease and skill; all while using a tiny knife. _"He is only curious, you know... Do you not remember what it is like to be young?"_

Father sighed and rubbed one of his light blue eyes with a big, dirty, overworked hand. _“My… My apologies, Nthanda...Kagiso,”_ he reassured us with a sigh then leaned over and gave my mother a quick kiss on her dry, dark skinned cheek before milking the cow in front of him. _“I am just...so tired today…”_

Mother tilted her head slightly, her dark brown eyes shining with curiosity. _“Why is that, my dear Atsu?”_ she inquired.

_“Kagiso, please, leave your mother and I to talk,”_ he instructed me gently after some time of silence. _“You should not hear this.”_

I opened my mouth to argue, but nodded instead when I caught my mother’s big eyes shooting daggers at me. _“Good night, then, father...mother.”_

_“Good night, Kagiso,”_ mother said with a smile while my father ruffled my hair before I stood up.

Picking up my large basket again and placing it on my hip, I walked up to a ladder to climb as I was wordlessly ordered to do. Since I could still hear my parents once I had things settled down in the hay in the upper loft, I sat close to the edge. I was overly curious, so I listened silently to their conversation.

_“He cannot still hear us, can he?”_ my father asked in a low voice.

The question seemed to displease my mother and she tossed some potato skins onto my father’s bald head. _“Do not worry,”_ she seemed to hiss, her voice faint as well. _“Tell me what you overheard.”_ She then gave him a light shove when he seemed to become a mute; almost reluctant to answer my mother. _“Atsu, answer me… Hold on, since when have you understood the other words?”_

_“I do not, Nthanda,”_ Father reassured her, nervousness overcoming him. _“I was with little Zuri and helping her with something that was much too heavy for her to do on her own without a man’s aid.”_

Mother flung more potatoes, but at Father’s face instead. _“What did the two of you hear, Atsu?”_

Usually my mother was a calm and sweet person. If someone was hiding something from her though, or taking a long time to let her know, she became easily irritable. She preferred to be aware of everything instead of being in the dark.

Zuri was a lot like my mother as well, but she had a talent none of us had. She was able to understand and talk the words spoken by the people who ordered us to do their work. Even though she was one to three years older than me, she could learn to speak foreign words like no other. Only reason why she could, she told me once before, was because she had been around others for a long time before coming to the farm.

Father picked at the filth under his short nails. _“Well, uh...little Zuri, from what I can understand, um…”_ He trailed off and looked up at the ceiling of the barn as if something were there. His expression wore showed that he was also attempting to word what he had learned just right for my mother. _“Remember what happened to Tse?”_  father asked once he looked back down at her.

She frowned at him with a look that told my father the question he asked was obscene. _“Of course I do,”_ mother told him softly. _“...but what does that have to do with what you are going to tell me?”_

_“It’s going to happen again… Little Zuri and I overheard Edwards talking about it.”_

Edwards, or Logan Edwards, was the man we worked under; whose chores we did. He took my mother and my father away from their homeland and brought them here. He left my grandparents for dead over there too…

My mother immediately stopped her skinning of the potatoes with a horrified expression plastered on her face. _“I-I do not want to do that again,”_ she stated with sadness in her tone. _“I do not like being in front of so many beings…”_

~~~

“Alright, you lazy good-for-nothin’s, move it!” I heard Mr. Logan yell at the top of his lungs. “It’s a big day today, so let’s get you all lookin’ nice.”

Women and men were taken to opposite sides of the barn and so were the boys and girls. I couldn’t understand what was happening. Was this what Mother and Father were speaking of last night?

“Don’t forget to hide scars and wounds!”

“Clean ‘em up too!”

There were foreign words being thrown around everywhere, and not a single one I could understand. What was happening? I didn’t know, but I wanted to. It was beginning to eat at me that I couldn’t comprehend anything at all.

Suddenly, after we had been bathed and dressed in new clothes, we were all led into a huge pen that was set up just outside the barn. Once all fifty, plus of my people were in the pen, it wasn’t big enough. Elbows were ramming into ribs, and everyone was huddled together as if it were cold outside, which it was not. It was quite the opposite, and we were standing out there for quite sometime.

Fortunately enough, I was beside Zuri during the long ordeal. She wouldn’t tell me what was happening though. Instead she would stand there silently and wipe her eyes of any tears that would come to her grey eyes.

_“It is alright,”_ I whispered, gently taking her hand.

_“No, it is not!”_ she hissed and jerked her hand away from mine. _“You do not even know what is going on!”_

I took her hand again and held it tight. _“I think I understand,”_ I assured her. _“It is sad, yes, but they are with us, remember?”_ I smiled at her slightly. _“They will be around no matter how many miles there will be.”_

Zuri sniffed then held my hand back. _“...I guess you’re right…”_

More nonsense, to my ears, was yelled for some time longer until Edwards walked over again one last time. He grabbed me by the arm and took me up to a podium to stand on. I could hear Zuri and my mother call out to me in a panic, but before I knew it…

_**WHACK.** _

Another man came up and took my other arm and began to walk away with me. I looked up at him in confusion and all he did was smirk at me. His teeth were all crooked and his breath smelled like something had crawled into his mouth and died. “Say goodbye, boy.”

_“Kagiso…!”_


End file.
